12 Best Super Bowl Commercials of All Time

Forget football. We love watching the Super Bowl because of the advertising, which often includes commercials that can set a brand's ad trend for years to come. This year's lineup was chockful of the usual leaders, including E*Trade's Jealous Girlfriend and Anheuser Busch's Clydesdale Friend. We took a look back and drafted the best ones for our list of the best Super Bowl commercials in history. Play ball.

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Mean Joe Greene—The Coca-Cola Company, 1984

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Coca-Cola put the popularity of player Charles "Mean Joe" Greene, who was widely considered the cornerstone of the Pittsburgh Steelers' legendary "Steel Curtain" defense, to good use. Killing him with Coke and kindness, a young fan makes the player's day and, feeling freshly revived from the mood-boosting soda, Mean Joe returns the favor.

1984—Apple, Inc., 1984

This legendary Apple ad, which aired during the third quarter of the 1984 Super Bowl, was considered a watershed event in advertising. The masterpiece, an homage to George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four directed by Ridley Scott, introduced the first Macintosh personal computer.

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Where's the Beef?—Wendy's, 1984

This now-famous phrase was first introduced in a Wendy's Super Bowl ad by American character actress Clara Peller, who was later fired in 1985 after declaring she had "found it" in a Prego advertisement. Though the relationship between the actor and brand was badly burnt, the phrase is still on fire.

Apartment 10G—PepsiCo, 1987

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Of the many Diet Pepsi ads Michael J. Fox was featured in during the '80s, this is perhaps his most memorable. Recently, Pepsi re-aired the spot during the finale of Spin City as a tribute to Fox, and donated $100,000 to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.

Pepsi's New Look—PepsiCo, 1992

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Advertising the new look for Pepsi and Diet Pepsi cans is gorgeous '90s supermodel Cindy Crawford. Of course the real surprise is that anyone, including the two preadolescents featured in the commercial, would be able to focus on the can when she's around.

The Showdown—McDonald's, 1993

Two basketball greats of the time, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird, play each other for a Big Mac, including a farfetched shot, which traveled "off the expressway, over the river, off the billboard, through the window, off the wall" before swooshing through the net.

Frogs—Anheuser-Busch, 1995

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Three frogs croaking "Bud," "Weis" and "Er," created by Budweiser's brand manager Greg Gorman, made their TV debut during Super Bowl XXIX and became the stars of one of the most successful alcohol advertising campaigns in history.

Out the Wazoo—E*Trade, 2000

This parody of the U.S. healthcare system is known as the beginning of E*Trade's successful Super Bowl advertising journey—which eventually came to include the well-known Monkey and Talking Baby ads.

Mouse Click—Blockbuster, 2007

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During Super Bowl XLI, in order to compete with other online movie renting services, Blockbuster put back into animation its 2002 characters Carl the rabbit (voiced by James Woods), Ray the guinea pig (voiced by Jim Belushi) and a nameless mouse (voiced by Bob Goldthwait), to poke fun at its latest technology.

Clydesdale Team—Anheuser-Busch, 2008

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When Hank the horse doesn't make the cut for the famous Clydesdale "Hits Team," a Rocky-inspired montage of training scenes with his Dalmatian coach follows, ensuring him a place on the team—and the following year's broadcast of the game.

Scream—Bridgestone Corporation, 2008

At first, this commercial had us plugging our ears, but it all comes together as the car's driver—thanks to Bridgestone tires—easily avoids a road kill situation, which is hilariously preempted with screams from everyone there, including wild animals and the car's passenger.

Hot Item—Bridgestone Corporation, 2009

If Bridgestone tires are good enough for astronauts, they're good enough for us. Yep—during Super Bowl XLIII, Bridgestone (the official tire brand of the NFL) got our wheels turning again with their funny outer space–set parody of street theft.